If a link is greyed out, that crew is fully recruited. People do drop out, so check the main volunteering page right up to the day the Festival opens.

If you’re interested in offering a workshop, running a campaign stall, you’re a trader, healer, yoga teacher, performer or if you represent a band, visit the Contributors section of the volunteering and contributing page.

Entry

The Festival opens to ticket holders at 10am on Wednesday 18 July. Please note that, for safety reasons, the Main Gate closes at 10pm (after dark) and re-opens at 10am. Arrivals after 10pm will be allowed to park up in our Reception Field, outside the car park, but not admitted onto site until the morning.

Please join us for the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday at 5.30pm and join us again at the formal Closing Ceremony on Sunday at 2pm (note that programmed activities will continue until 11pm). All of our facilities will cease to be available to ticket holders from Monday lunchtime onwards. Please be sure to leave site by this time at the latest.

The Festival: What’s It All About?

Buddhafield Festival is an intimate and joyful gathering of around 3,000 people, celebrating community and connection with the land. Song, dance, arts and crafts, yoga, meditation, and play blend together without drink or drugs to create a loving and life-affirming space. There will be Buddhist teaching, workshops and ritual, under sun and stars. The Festival is family-friendly and open to everyone, however you practice.

This Year’s Theme

This year Buddhafield will be basing its programme around the theme of “Dance of Life and Death”. Get involved during our public rituals! Find out more.

The Buddhafield Festival is held on a beautiful site in the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), about 7 miles South of Taunton, at Culmhead.

We offer a full programme of activities, including the teaching, discussion and study of Buddhism and meditation in the Dharma Parlour and Meditation Space. If it’s relaxation you’re looking for, take your ease in one a number of vegan and vegetarian cafés, whilst waiting for one of our extensive range of workshops to start. There’s a full performance programme of music and cabaret. We have a set of specialist Areas and Spaces including Permaculture, Social Change, Women’s Space and a terrific Kids Area. Amongst the delights of healing and bodywork on offer, you could learn or practise Yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Gung, book a massage or investigate one of the dozens of other treatments.

The testimonials page has a selection of recent feedback and reviews. There’s also a list of photographs and videos.

Drug and Alcohol Policy: Get into the Spirit ... but Leave the Spirits at Home

Alcohol and drugs (including “legal highs”) are not welcome at the Festival. We reserve the right to ask people not respecting this to leave.

Buddhism is about getting out of our head. Into the body. Into the abundance of the present moment. Away from stale thought loops that regret the past or worry about the future; away from a dulled, dumbed down experience; away from avoiding parts of ourselves, into the full vividness and beauty of now.

In the Buddhist ethical trainings, this “mindfulness clear and radiant” is supported by “abstaining from intoxicants” that could cloud the mind. For many it is a big part of why they come; for those in recovery, not being around drugs and alcohol is crucial. Please help us retain the uniqueness of the collective creation that is Buddhafield by entering into the spirit of this aspect of the Festival.

Our peacekeeping team will be trained to challenge people publicly not respecting our request.

Environmental Responsibility: Leave No Trace!

As much of our power as possible is acquired from renewable sources including the sun, wind and wood burner. We do not use generators, not even bio-diesel ones! Buddhafield is always looking for ways to reduce it’s carbon footprint and we actively encourage liftsharing and the use of public transport.

We take our recycling very seriously and operate a “Take Your Landfill Home” policy. Please visit the “Temple of Ming” during the Festival where our Recycling Team sort through every incoming bag by hand. This year we managed to reduce the number of landfill-bound skips down to only one!

Facilities

On the camping & live-ins page there’s a description of the camping options and facilities, a notice about unloading and packing your car, full information about live-in spaces and advice for Disabled Ticket Holders. More information about lost property, washing and hygiene, Fire, waste and recycling, music and noise on the Festival site facilities page. We also help you plan your camping by summarising the options for food, as well as an intorudction to our Traders, Shops & Stalls.

More Festival Links

We regret that we cannot guarantee that any specific actvity, workshop or performer described will be available on the day, or that the site layout will not change to accommodate unforseen circumstances.